Bright Shiny Morning (P.S.) Paperback – May 12, 2009

It's no secret that I'm a long-time James Frey fan. Before he was O-famous, he and I emailed several times, and I'm privileged to have an autographed copy of A Million Little Pieces. I was excited when I learned he was coming out with a new novel, and pre-ordered it months ahead on Amazon.com.I knew I wasn't going to read another Little Pieces story, but having read the editor's description of the book before ordering, I wasn't sure what I was going to read. And now I know that the editor probably had a hard time describing this book because it is so unique that it almost defies description.Just like A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning pulls you into its pages and won't let you go even after you've read every word. Frey does an excellent job in building characters you truly feel like you know, though you also come to understand you probably wouldn't even glance at them if you walked by them on the street, with the exception of the world famous actor. He tells many stories in this book - and though the characters of each story aren't connected, he manages to connect them through his ability to make you care about each individual. He uses the history of Los Angeles almost like "rest areas" between these stories -- he bounces back and forth between scenarios and characters and just when you can't wait to learn what happens next, he throws in new characters in smaller vignettes that have nothing to do with what you've already read, but just gives you more and more to savor and contemplate.Now I understand why his publishing house had such a difficult time describing this book. It sounds SO complicated and fractured, but trust me, it's not. It is a totally unique piece of fiction and another Frey masterpiece. It is probably unlike anything you've ever read before, and certainly unlike any of the ho-hum out-of-new-ideas-but-still-a-bestselling-author titles currently on the bestseller list. This book is currently #52 on Amazon's list, but it's definitely #1 on mine.Buy this book. I believe you'll probably still be able to buy a 1st Edition, 1st printing copy. Read it. Savor it. Then put it away. At some point in time James Frey is going to gain the acceptance and recognition from the literary world that he so deserves, and you're going to have a collector's item on your hands. Trust me on this one. The O-crap may have made him temporarily famous, but his unique writing style and storytelling are going to make him a Pulitzer Prize winner at some point. It's just a matter of time.

As a resident of Los Angeles, this was certainly enjoyable from the perspective of getting to learn so much about my city, in the midst of the man story lines. Frey's decision to reinvent punctuation eventually took on a personality unto itself and seemed to present a lot of the story with a kind of urgency, unhindered by the conventions of quotes and full stops. It quickly melts away from conspicuousness and puts the story front and center. This book, which examines a small collection of personal story threads that do not really intertwine beyond being part of the fabric that is Los Angeles, is for the most part compelling. That said, I feel that the characters, though enriched enough to derive our compassion, are not fully three dimensional. They all operate simplistically and while we see a good deal in the way of their actions, we get less of a sense of what they think and feel (perhaps with the exception of Esperanza). The interludes of L.A. facts are entertaining and informative, although there are times in some of the other chapters (U.S. Veteran's being one) where I felt he was bogged down by his chosen writing convention. Perhaps such chapters were meant more as art pieces as a whole, because reading them was virtually impossible without sighing and saying, alright, alright, I get it i get it i get it. I dropped a star because the book's finish wasn't quite satisfying. It felt unfinished. But perhaps their stories are similarly unfinished. Highly recommended for those who live in LA or have a fascination with this huge, odd, remarkable city.

I truly loved, LOVED this book. I loved it so much I didn't want it to end. I actually had to slow my reading pace down to savor it a little longer. James Frey is an incredible writer and now one of my favorites. He has actually inspired me to write again.My knowledge of James Frey prior to reading this book was from the national scandal pertaining to his faux memoir. I didn't have an opinion about him either way but I knew I didn't want to read that memoir. When a friend of mine recommended "Bright Shiny Morning," I thought of giving it a shot, especially that it was about my city--Los Angeles. I'm so glad I did.I was immediately hooked by the captivating narrative and the rich and conflicted characters: the young midwestern eighteen-year-old couple that is California Dreamin', the high-powered, closeted Hollywood actor in love with another man, the Mexican-American girl trying to reconcile her dreams with reality and dealing with a body party she hates, the homeless man that spends his days waiting and wondering where his life went, the immigrants, the porn stars, the gangs, the poor, the rich and everyone in between that lives and dies in Los Angeles.I was mostly impressed by the historical anecdotes of the city with which this book is rife and some of which I did verify. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of research that went into this splendid work of fiction.I can literally go on and on about this book, but I'll leave you with this: BUY IT. READ IT. RE-READ IT. It will inspire your creativity and captivate your imagination.

I read this having seen a recommendation in Good Housekeeping. Sadly I was misled- I just hated it. It just seemed full of violence and aggression reporting on a part of America that seems to be heading"down the pan". Weird writing style and depressing content. Really had to struggle to finish it, then wished I'd spent my time some other way..

I don't care about the 'controversy' surrounding a million little pieces - that was a great book, and who cares if a few facts were skewed a little? It's a story.#I read this as a follow-up after My Friend Leonard. I'm enjoying it, but I really wish he'd selected the primary characters and stuck to their stories. I don't find the diversions about different roads, or random races and so on very interesting, and it's frustrating when Frey is so good at character-based cliff hangers. Almost great - just not quite.

I loved James Freys other books, and I love his writing. I must say this didn't do the trick like the other books. It's quite boring to read all the facts about LA (although I appreciate this might be more amusing for people from the states) and it took me a long time to finish it (I read a million little pieces and my friend Leonard in two days). The parts about some of the characters are good, but all in all it has nothing on his previous books and I wouldn't recommend it for a friend

I really enjoyed this book. Frey, in my opinion, has a talent as a contemporary writer and I like how he references the controversy over A Million Little Pieces within this story. True life blends with fiction in this dark, troubled story about human behaviour.

Fantastic Book I could not put it down. James Frey writes open and honestly and although its not a book which links to his first two which are an account of his life Bright Shiny Morning still has the ability to be thinking of the story when you are not actually reading it. Highly recommended.